Iraqi Premier Visits a City As His Forces Widen Patrols

By ROBERT F. WORTH; Omar al-Neami and Qais Mizher contributed reporting for this article.

Published: September 13, 2005

Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari paid a surprise visit to Tal Afar on Monday, with that city largely quiet after a major offensive by American and Iraqi troops aimed at reclaiming it from insurgents.

The prime minister has repeatedly showcased the Tal Afar operation as proof of his government's willingness to deal decisively with Sunni insurgents in western Iraq.

State television continued to show film of Iraqi soldiers storming buildings in Tal Afar throughout the day.

With the fighting largely over, more police commando units began moving into Tal Afar and the surrounding area, where they will remain for weeks as a new police force for the city is recruited and trained, and reconstruction efforts get under way, Iraqi military officials said.

An insurgent group, the Islamic Army in Iraq, offered up to $100,000 for the assassination of Mr. Jaafari and other high-ranking members of the government who were involved in the offensive, Reuters reported.

The same group announced in an Internet posting that it had killed a high-ranking Interior Ministry official in retaliation for the operation in Tal Afar.

Interior Ministry officials could not confirm such a death by Monday evening.

Another organization, the Victorious Army Group, threatened Sunday to attack Baghdad with chemical weapons if the Tal Afar operation did not stop.

The interior minister, Bayan Jabr, discounted that threat in a news conference on Monday, but he added that the government was consulting with chemical weapons specialists and making preparations in case the threat is carried out.

Mr. Jabr also dismissed questions from reporters about whether the Tal Afar attack was timed to shore up the government's image ahead of the national referendum in October on the constitution.

Scattered violence continued across Iraq on Monday. A car bomb exploded outside a restaurant in the upscale Baghdad neighborhood of Mansour, killing at least 2 people and wounding 20, according to the Interior Ministry.

Also in Baghdad, gunmen in cars opened fire on crowds in two neighborhoods, killing six people and wounding two, and 10 bodies were found in a southern neighborhood, Interior Ministry officials said.

In Kirkuk, in the north, gunmen opened fire on the provincial government headquarters, killing two police officers. A Kurdish militiaman was also killed in Kirkuk after a gun battle broke out in the Hurriya neighborhood, police officials said.

South of Baghdad, insurgents opened fire on a motorcade carrying a representative of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most revered Shiite cleric. One guard was killed and another wounded, Interior Ministry officials said.

Photo: Iraqi police commandos patrolled yesterday in Tal Afar with American forces to rid the town of insurgents. (Photo by Jacob Silberberg/Associated Press)